Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 1525 – Public Intelligence Blog

The Ruling Class Wages War On Truth Itself

Civil Liberties – Henrik Alexandersson: The ruling class and the governments are waging a war against truth itself. Governments are demanding control over citizens and their communications. Governments don’t hesitate to persecute and imprison people who tell the truth about what’s going on, defending citizens’ rights. There is reason to worry.

Chelsea Manning gave the West the true picture about what’s happening in the wars waged in our name. She gave us the truth about the political and diplomatical double-crossing that happens when powerholders believe that the people aren’t watching. This was punished with 35 years in prison.

WikiLeaks distributed this knowledge to the world. The U.S. Adminsitration reacted with fury against the truth coming out. American politicians have threatened the Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, with the death penalty – and it is unclear what would happen if the United States would manage to sink its claws into him.

When the United States lacked legal options to punish WikiLeaks, the administration convinced its friends in Big Business to cut its payment channels. The credit card companies, banks, financial institutions, and PayPal became a weapon for Power, when Power wanted to proceed beyond the Law.

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower on the United States NSA, is one of the planet’s most hunted individuals – for telling the truth about the global mass surveillance under construction by (among others) the NSA, the GCHQ, and the Swedish equivalent, the FRA. He has been branded a traitor for telling the people at large what the ruling political and bureaucratic class is actually doing.

And now we’re being told that European politicians, diplomats, and reporters are at risk of prosecution in the United States if they’re digging too deeply into Snowden’s revelations. If they learn too much about what’s actually going on. If they seek the truth.

Continue reading “Rickard Falkvinge: Ruling Class War on Truth”

2014/05/092014/05/09

SchwartzReport: 40% of US High School Graduates Cannot Read Competently…

04 Education

We spend more on education than any other advanced state, and we get dismal outcomes for our money. The United States seems to be unable to do what other industrialized nations do routinely — educate our children. Only 40 per cent of graduating seniors can even read competently. We are becoming a nation of morons, and this is particularly true in the Red value states. So this is also having a big effect on the Great Schism Trend!

No Gains for 12th-graders on National Exam
KIMBERLY HEFLING – The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Handing out dismal grades, the Nation's Report Card says America's high school seniors lack critical math and reading skills for an increasingly competitive global economy.

Only about one-quarter are performing proficiently or better in math and just 4 in 10 in reading. And they're not improving, the report says, reinforcing concerns that large numbers of today's students are unprepared for either college or the workplace.

2014/05/082014/05/08

Richard Wright: Intelligence Analysis is Not Done by Computers

IO Impotency, IO Sense-Making

Intelligence Analysis

Follow up on Robert Steele & Anonymous: Most Analysis Software Sucks — And Story of How Steele Correctly Called BSA Not Being Signed in Afghanistan

The usefulness of computer aids to intelligence analysis (“tools”) depends a good deal on what sort of ‘intelligence’ you are talking about. Intelligence is information that has been subjected to a process of research and analysis to determine its relative accuracy and relevance. When trying to determine if “analytic software” can help this process it is necessary to look at the kind of information that is being processed.

In the field of technical intelligence, i.e. SIGINT, there are a number of “tools” that are very useful. Most of these so-called tools are retrieval programs of various sorts that allow the analyst to manipulate the data in various useful ways and some of these capabilities go back over ten years ago (clustering and linking related bits if information and geographic displays using GIS). The most important unclassified technical advance impacting on analysis today is the availability of authentic data mining programs for the analyst. Data mining is NOT simple data retrieval, as many birdbrains claiming to speak for the IC appear to believe. Data mining proper uses a suite of sophisticated algorithms capably of detecting hidden patterns and trends, finding anomalies that may not be apparent, and even changing the original query structure to reflect retrieved information. Oracle has such a program based on the Oracle relational database that has been around in one form or another for at least 15 years. Data mining obviously would be effective against “big data.” The problem with all this is that these tools are designed to make research and analysis easier especially when dealing with large amounts of unevaluated information. As “anonymous” observed they cannot replace an engaged and target smart analyst.

Continue reading “Richard Wright: Intelligence Analysis is Not Done by Computers”

2014/05/082014/05/08

Owl: Nuke May Have Been Unleashed in Iran – Did an Error Survive in CIA’s Plans for the Bomb as Given to the Iranians?

05 Iran, 08 Proliferation, Government, IO Deeds of War

Nuke May Have Been Unleashed in Iran

“Iranian Fars News Service reported a massive explosion in Qazvin, Iran today. The origins may have been nuclear.
Arutz Sheva reported:

An immense explosion has been heard throughout the northern Iranian city of Qazvin, semi-official Fars news agency reported, and many casualties are expected from the blast.

Around 1.1 million people live in the city, which is located about 100 miles north of Tehran.

The blast may be related to nuclear development in Iran, according to the Los Angeles Times. Iranian officials in the past have strongly denied claims by Mujahedin Khalq Organization, or MKO, a cult-like Iranian exile group, that it has a secret nuclear enrichment facility in Abyek, near the major city, according to the daily.

The source of the blast remains undetermined. Several mystery explosions have been reported in the past several years in the region, none of which were ever verified.”

More:

Massive Explosion in Qazvin, Iran – May Have Nuclear Origins …Update: Roads Blocked Off for 2kmMassive Explosion in Qazvin, Iran – May Have Nuclear Origins …Update: Roads Blocked Off for 2km

Phi Beta Iota: It has been known since 2005 that CIA gave the Iranians the complete plans for making a nuclear bomb, with many errors called “rudimentary” at the time, easily discovered and fixed by Russians working for Iran. Perhaps one of the errors was not so rudimentary after all.

See Also:

Iran CIA nuclear plans Merlin @ Google

2014/05/082014/05/08

Berto Jongman: General Stanley McChrystal — Stop Classifying Information, Start Sharing Information – The Military Case

Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Military

Secrecy as part of the existing DNA — and a major cancer.

When General Stanley McChrystal started fighting al Qaeda in 2003, information and secrets were the lifeblood of his operations. But as the unconventional battle waged on, he began to think that the culture of keeping important information classified was misguided and actually counterproductive. In a short but powerful talk McChrystal makes the case for actively sharing knowledge.

QUOTE: “In a tightly coupled world, it's hard to predict who will need what information.”

QUOTE: “Change from ‘who needs to know' to ‘who doesn't know.'”

QUOTE: “Information is only of value if you give it to people who have the ability to do something with it.”

VIDEO (6:44)

Interactive transcript (1 language)

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: General Stanley McChrystal — Stop Classifying Information, Start Sharing Information – The Military Case”

2014/05/082014/05/08

Tom Atlee: “Dark Google,” privacy and power

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, IO Impotency

As the information age and big data colonize everything in life – expanding now into reality itself – we face an erosion not only of privacy but of choice. Even as we think we have greater choice and power, really important choices and power are being subtly stolen from us by folks who don't want us to know or do anything about it. We need to take back our lives while we still can.

“Dark Google”, privacy and power

Dear friends,

Sir Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes told us that “Knowledge is power.” We need to integrate their insight with Sir John Acton's observation that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

In this runaway Information Age we need to realize that one-way concentrations of knowledge power are dangerous when they are not answerable, not responsive to oversight and feedback. The article below, “Dark Google”, makes this point powerfully regarding Google and the NSA. The author, Harvard's Shoshana Zuboff, is eminently qualified to issue this warning.

Continue reading “Tom Atlee: “Dark Google,” privacy and power”

2014/05/082014/05/08

John Robb: Ukraine, Putin, and Open Source Warfare: In the 21st Century, Warfare is business by other means.

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 10 Transnational Crime, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence

Putin and Open Source Warfare

Is Putin using open source warfare?

Of course he is. Who sold him on the approach? Apparently, he has an advisor called Vladislav Surkov who is a science fiction writer. He recently wrote a short story (published under his nom de guerre) called “Without the Sky” about a many vs. many war. A type of warfare very familiar to readers of Brave New War.

“This was the first non-linear war. In primitive wars of the nineteenth, twentieth and other Middle Ages fought usually two sides. Two nations or two temporary union. Now faced four coalition. And is not that two on two. Or three against one. No. All against all. And what were the coalition! Not like before. Rare state included in them entirely. Sometimes, several provinces were on one side, some on the other, and any city or generation, or gender, or professional community of the same state – the third. Then they could change its position. Go to whatever site. “

In other words a swirling “bazaar of violence.” The author and TV producer Peter Pomerantsev also sees a connection between this approach an a corporatist view of the world. A world where “corporate raiding” can now be accomplished by states and the raids can be violent. I see that too.

In the 21st Century, warfare isn't politics by other means.

Warfare is business by other means.

PS: I wrote some interesting scenarios depicting economic warfare against Russia as a means of defeating it bloodlessly back in 2004.